A bidet provides an upwardly discharging column of water beneath a seated user. The use of a bidet is desirable for personal hygiene and medical reasons since the toilet tissue in modern use is only a partial cleaning agent. Urologists and proctologists believe that the incidence of bladder infections and the like could be substantially eliminated if people would make routine use of a bidet in order to cleanse the perineal area. Due to the configuration of the female anatomy, women appear to be more prone to such disorders. Additionally, the bidet may be a useful therapeutic device for promoting healing after surgical operations, such as episiotomies and the like.
It has been common in Western European counties to provide a bidet as a unit separate from the toilet. However, such a unit takes up additional floor space, and requires plumbing that is more elaborate than that of the toilet itself due to the need to provide hot and cold water. In addition, the expense of the bidet itself must be considered.
The above problems can be overcome by a device that would adapt a standard toilet to perform the additional functions of a bidet. The prior art in this area is voluminous, clearly suggesting that many people believe the idea to be a good one. Most of the prior art devices are relatively elaborate devices that are attached to the toilet bowl in question in such a manner that they tend to be substantially non-removable. It is clear that a substantially permanently attached device interferes with normal usage of the toilet no matter how unobtrusive the device is designed to be, and further interferes with cleaning of the toilet. Additionally, a bidet adapter that resides permanently on the toilet is easily contaminated by body wastes, thereby largely defeating a major purpose for which the device is used in the first place. Furthermore, such fixed devices are in general not readily adjustable as to position and further may not be readily adaptable to more than a narrow range of toilet bowl configurations.
There have been a number of portable bidet adapters, some of which are suitable for a wide range of toilet bowl configurations. Such portable bidet adapters often depend on a faucet in the bathroom to provide a source of water at a proper temperature and pressure. A water supply line is typically connected to the faucet by means of a suitable connector which may be held to the faucet by friction or by positive means (e.g. threads).
However, even these prior art devices have not been entirely satisfactory, since they have generally been either non-adjustable once in place, or difficult to adjust by a user sitting on the toilet seat. A further problem arises from the occasional need to temporarily interrupt the discharging column of water. Turning off the water faucet would necessitate a readjustment to achieve the desired pressure and temperature while placing an on/off valve in the bidet adapter supply line at a location convenient to the user may be impractical when a friction fit faucet connector is used, since such a connector might not hold under the pressure caused by closing off the line at a downstream point.
Efforts to design a bidet adapter that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, easy to position and adjust, and whose upward discharge of water may be easily and conveniently interrupted, have in general been unsuccessful to date. As a result, bidet adapters have not become commonly used and their potential advantages have remained largely unrealized.